Where does your mail ....

...arrive? At the Post Box or at your door? Owning a post box at the post office here is expensive. The old system of the Postman delivering all the mails at the doorstep is still in vogue, though some of the postmen insist on having a mailbox fixed at the gate so that it saves him from entering the premises to deliver the mail. This is prompted because many keep dogs at home which can be irritating to them. Till many years back, the postman was considered to be a great link between two people writing letters from different cities and that was the only means of communication between them. Lost mails are a great disappointment even now.

At our mailbox. It is also expensive to keep a PO Box here.

Some people here put up a small board on the gate "Beware of Dogs" (those who own pet dogs, which are also ferocious) to warn the visitors. Postmen are especially afraid of such houses and more often nowadays, they put a box on the gate to help the postman as well as the newspaper boy to deposit the items there. Around our house, there are a lot of mischievous boys who loiter and sometimes they enter our premises to do little mischiefs. So, in order to prevent such boys from entering, I had put up such a board. This was sometimes misleading known people who started standing at the gate and shouting for us to call attention. It did help to keep those boys away, but I had told the postman in his ear that I had no dog. In a lighter vein, I said I am the Dog!! So, do not be afraid to enter and deliver the mails. He then grinned at me. Once I mimicked a dog-bark to a little boy that was at the gate trying to enter. That put him in doubt. He fled the scene.

AT the office, we have our own delivery office where the postman delivers mails to people by hand to the desk, almost like the pigeon carrying a message to person to person.

We always had our mail delivered to the house until we moved into town this year. Because the mailboxes here are out by the street where the kids passing by from the Highschool can grab and run we decided to get a box at the post office. We priced several local post offices and found that the rates can vary a great deal With the ones in the larger post offices being the highest cost. Our local was about mid range in cost but is only 2 blocks from the house so we went with that.

I have heard that some nasty boys dump rubbish in the mailboxes??

We haven't had any rubbish problems here but the boxes do not lock and my Husbands medications come in the mail. The kids will grab a package and run with it. So we decided tje PO box was safer to use.

Kids really have weird ways to amuse themselves there 8/

Very true Evert! They had a girl who stole diabetic supplies from a mailbox who handed the pills out at school. Several kids almost died from it! I don't want that to happen with Bob's medicine so we decided not to take any chances.

Most of the kids here are really great but there are always a few who seem to thrive on mischief.

Right to the door when the plant boxes dont fit in the mailbox that is about 100 ft from the door at the road! =]

Our mailbox is on the state highway a mile from our house. Several other families get their mail at the same group of boxes, the nearest house is about half a mile away from them. The postal carrier has a contract route but it is only for the state highway and we live on a county road. The next alternative is a post office box 20 miles away.

My mailbox is on the street in front of my house, but my mailman will bring packages to the house or put them in the truck in the driveway if there is nobody home. If he knows its plants he has even gone to the trouble of walking around the house and putting them on the back porch out of the sun.

I forgot to tell that the Post Office in our locality is just about 300 metres away.

My mailbox is also on the road in front of my house. My mailman will bring larger packages to my door.

our mailbox is across the street from our house, but if we get a package, the mail lady will bring it right into our garage, she kows I get plants etc., and our garage is usually open when someone is home, she just comes in and puts them next to the inner door.
I got a Post box for the office last month, it was like 20 dollars for 6 motnhs, I thought that was reasonable.

My large mailbox is a little less than a quarter of a mile away on the county road. My mail lady is very good. Today I wasn't home, which she can't tell from the mailbox as house is not visible, she brought my mail to the house. There was a long box, must have been almost too long for her small van, she left it and my mail by my back door. the mail is put together with two large rubber bands, as I can't hold much of anything because of arthiritis. So I really appreciate all she does. Donna

I had written an Aerogramme to my friend in the US some years ago. After 3 weeks, I got an plastic envelope from the USPS containing my torn-into-half letter! My address was visible luckily. A letter was also enclosed by the USPS regretting that the mail was undeliverable because that letter might have been caught in the sorting machines. I appreciated the promptness of the USPS.

Sometimes, these mails "vanish" into thin air! Nobody knows where they go. I used to listen to Radio Korea and was a monitor for them for 16 years. so, I used to get mails from them very often and every day, I used to look for the postman and the mails. Many times they used to send mementoes for my winning quizzes and contests. I used to listen on the radio that I have won and they announced what they sent. The postman was an important link. Once or twice, the mails were pilfered. I brought it to the notice of the Postal Dept. which promptly deputed a person to inquire the matter. I explained to him about my activities. Later on, no such thing happened. They became alert.

Dinu, what a funny story ~ you playing the role of a dog! LOLOL! Smart! And sounds like it works! :)! I have a post office box ~ $11 per year. The post office is just up the road about a mile, so it's convenient. Besides the theft of medications Zany mentioned, I worry about theft of personal information ~ theives steal credit card bills, checks and such out of non-locked mailboxes in front of people's homes. With the information in those stolen items, theives can apply for more credit cards in that person's name, sometimes without the person even knowing about it until MANY dollars worth of merchandise is charged on the credit cards. It doesn't happen often, but often enough that I'd just rather have a PO box for peace of mind. It's also nice that my plant packages stay in an air conditioned building until I get them! And every now and again, teenage boys like to play "Mailbox Baseball" ~ they drive by mailboxes and try to knock them off their posts with a baseball bat! LOL! Yes, I'll stick to my post office box. ;)

Pebble, Donna and Mystic, you sure have some nice mail carriers! :) It's nice to hear of caring people like that. :)